University of Dundee DOCTOR of PHILOSOPHY a New Archaic Avant-Garde?
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University of Dundee DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY A New Archaic Avant-Garde? Tradition and Experimentation in the Neo-Mediaeval Cinema of Terry Gilliam, Derek Jarman, and John Boorman Wilson, Ewan Award date: 2020 Link to publication General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 02. Oct. 2021 A New Archaic Avant-Garde?: Tradition and Experimentation in the Neo-Mediaeval Cinema of Terry Gilliam, Derek Jarman, and John Boorman Ewan Wilson Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) at the University of Dundee May 2020 2 3 Contents A New Archaic Avant-Garde?: Tradition and Experimentation in the Neo-Mediaeval Cinema of Terry Gilliam, Derek Jarman, and John Boorman ............................................................................................. 1 Table of Figures ....................................................................................................................................... 5 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 9 Chapter 1: Gilliam ................................................................................................................................ 13 A Tale of Two Terrys: Illustrating the Middle Ages in Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Jabberwocky ...................................................................................................................................... 15 Hollywood’s Distorting Mirror ...................................................................................................... 18 Figures Traced in Shite .................................................................................................................. 24 The Earthly City ............................................................................................................................. 32 ‘The God Within’: The Fisher King as Gilliam’s Grail Quest .............................................................. 41 ‘Just guys and girls trying to get together.’ ................................................................................... 47 Knightmares and Impish Gods ...................................................................................................... 59 A Fairytale of New York ................................................................................................................. 70 ‘Fancy chan’g every thing he saw into what he desir’d to see’: Light and Vision in The Man Who Killed Don Quixote and The Zero Theorem ........................................................................................ 72 Who Killed Don Quixote? .............................................................................................................. 75 ‘Those whom thou see’st yonder’ ................................................................................................ 78 ‘Putting the “you” back in Utopia’ ................................................................................................ 85 Neon Demons ............................................................................................................................... 89 Chapter 2: Jarman ................................................................................................................................ 95 ‘I was always a Pre-Raphaelite’: Derek Jarman’s Mediaeval Modernism......................................... 97 Under the Skin ............................................................................................................................ 102 Distant Voices, Still Lives ............................................................................................................. 112 A Field in England ........................................................................................................................ 118 ‘The still, sad music of humanity’: Poetic Landscapes in The Angelic Conversation and The Last of England ........................................................................................................................................... 128 Brief Encounter ........................................................................................................................... 130 (Re)Birth of a Nation ................................................................................................................... 141 ‘So short is life, so long to learn is art’: The influence of mediaeval dream poetry on Jubilee and The Garden ...................................................................................................................................... 152 Time Bandits ............................................................................................................................... 152 Dead Ringers ............................................................................................................................... 162 Chapter 3: Boorman ........................................................................................................................... 173 ‘A Touch of the Monstrous in the Hero’: Men, Monsters, and Mythic Structures in Point Blank and Zardoz ............................................................................................................................................. 175 'ða se ellengæst’.......................................................................................................................... 181 4 ‘The meaning of all corn is wheat’ .............................................................................................. 186 ‘The brute existent by which they learn to define themselves’ ................................................. 189 ‘Gaze deeper into the crystal’ ..................................................................................................... 191 ‘In this secret room from the past, I seek the future’ ................................................................. 199 ‘A Quest for Images’: Magic, Mysticism, and Thematic Distillation in The Lord of the Rings and Merlin Lives ..................................................................................................................................... 206 The History of Middle-earth........................................................................................................ 211 My(themes) ................................................................................................................................. 214 Concerning Wizards .................................................................................................................... 221 Merlin Lives ................................................................................................................................. 227 ‘A dream to some, a nightmare to others’: Excalibur’s Middle Ages ............................................. 233 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................... 255 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................................ 256 5 Table of Figures FIGURE 1: DETAIL OF ‘HELL’ FROM BOSCH’S ‘THE GARDEN OF EARTHLY DELIGHTS 34 FIGURE 2: DETAIL OF ‘THE TRIUMPH OF DEATH’ 34 FIGURE 3: DETAIL OF ‘THE TOWER OF BABEL’ 35 FIGURE 4: DETAIL OF ‘THE MAGPIE ON THE GALLOWS’ 35 FIGURE 5: EXAMPLE OF A COWBOY SHOT FROM THE FISHER KING 52 FIGURE 6: THE OLD JUXTAPOSED WITH THE NEW IN THE FISHER KING 52 FIGURE 7: PARRY’S PAINTING OF THE RED KNIGHT 64 FIGURE 8: JOHN NEVILLE AS BARON MUNCHAUSEN 64 FIGURE 9: GILLIAM’S RED KNIGHT 65 FIGURE 10: PAPER RIBBONS SIMULTATE FLAMES IN GIULIETTA DEGLI SPIRITI 65 FIGURE 11: RED AND GREEN LIGHT FILLS QOHEN’S CHURCH IN THE ZERO THEOREM 92 FIGURE 12: GREEN AND RED LIGHT SIGNALS THE BLENDING OF KIM NOVACK’S IDENTITIES IN VERTGIO 92 FIGURE 13: DEREK JARMAN’S BOOKSHELVES 103 FIGURE 14: JARMAN’S BOOKSHELVES 103 FIGURE 15: JARMAN’S BOOKSHELVES 104 FIGURE 16: JARMAN’S BOOKSHELVES 104 FIGURE 17: JARMAN’S BOOKSHELVES 105 FIGURE 18: DEREK JARMAN’S AVEBURY SERIES NO. 4 (1973) 125 FIGURE 20: TILDA SWINTON DANCES IN THE LAST OF ENGLAND 148 FIGURE 21: ELIZABETH II DROPS THE DIAMOND IN JUBILEE 159 FIGURE 22: BOD WEARS THE CROWN 159 FIGURE 23: ZED FINDS FRAYN’S RING IN ZARDOZ 197 FIGURE 24: CONSUELLA GIFTS HER RING TO ZED 197 FIGURE 26: THE ZARDOZ HEAD DRIFTS OVER THE LAKE AND PREPARES TO LAND ON ITS SHORES. 200 FIGURE 25: THE COMMUNICATOR RING PROJECTS A SAURON-LIKE EYE ONTO ZED’S FOREHEAD. 200 FIGURE 27: THE ZARDOZ HEAD, LANDED AT THE VORTEX, CAN BE SEEN WITH THE LAKE IN THE DISTANCE. 204 FIGURE 28: MAY’S ACOLYTES RESEMBLE ELVES AS THEY LEAVE THE